Amazon Prepares to Take on Netflix

Lookout Netflix it looks like Amazon is getting ready to take you on in a big kind of way. Amazon currently has a prime service called ‘Amazon Prime’ where you pay $79 a year and you get free 2 day shipping on alot of items. It seems through a technical glitch however that Amazon’s hand has been shown and the cards all read ‘Death to Netflix’. A user wrote in to Engadget and told them when he logged into his video on demand account he saw the following new message box below the information on the film he was going to rent;

The box indicated it was a new feature for Prime users. So it sounds like Amazon is going to be offering not just free 2 day shipping to Amazon Prime members but also unlimited video on demand streaming of over 5,000 movies. This is a big deal since Amazon’s service if they do not raise the price on it will be much cheaper then the $95 a year service that Netflix offers.

Earlier in the week Amazon also had announced they bought out the remaining stake in LoveFilm an online streaming service in the UK. They already owned just under 50% and spent $380million to acquire the rest. Combine these two stories of what Amazon is doing and its pretty clear they are making a big push to go into the membership based movie streaming business Netflix currently dominates.

With DVD and Bluray sales on the decline and Video on Demand gaining popularity this is a genius move by Amazon and one if played right could put the hurt on Netflix. A price war is coming and guess who wins for a change? We do!